2025 Reading Log | 41/200 yearly goal (+6 from last update)

After my last Reading Wednesday post (way back on June 4th), I got sucked into reading a ton of Naruto fanfic (KakaIru to be more specific) which has of course slowed down my book reading. However, I did manage to finish all of MomsDarkSecret's queer fantasy series, Bright Isle.

They're self-published original fiction works (available to read here on FictionPress, first book titled "The Wizard of Bright Isle") and so have many of the problems that such things have, like the occasional typo and meandering POVs. BUT overall they're enjoyable stories with low-stakes problems and satisfying consequences for the villain characters, plus multiple queer relationships. They do have romance though it's very light and not necessarily the focus of the plot, which is more about running a kingdom with evil wizards and greedy nobles trying to mess things up all the time.

Something about the writing style (especially in the first book) reminds me of old school fantasy books, like maybe from the 1980s? Like, books where the kid finds out he's a wizard and is basically like "okay, if you say so" and then there isn't much introspection on his changed circumstances and he just gets on with things.

I did enjoy the series but perhaps I shouldn't have read all of them one after another. There's a lot of repetition of plot points-- the greedy nobles/evil wizards just DO NOT LEARN-- and it became very obvious the author didn't want to actually permanently harm any of her non-evil characters, ever, so the tension doesn't work as well as in other books where people DO get just a little bit maimed.

As for my current reads: I'm like halfway through a 500k fanfic that's the first in a series, so I don't expect my book-reading pace to pick up any time soon. :P